ABRI to look into Irian Jaya killing claim
ABRI to look into Irian Jaya killing claim
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) said yesterday it would look into a claim by an Australian aid organization that ABRI personnel had killed and arrested indigenous Irianese protesting against the expansion of a mining project.
The report was made by the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA).
ABRI chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Soewarno Adiwijoyo said he had checked on the claim with ABRI's Intelligence Agency, BIA, and with the Trikora Military Command in Jayapura, the capital city of Irian Jaya province, but that both had said they had no information on the alleged killing and torture.
"But we will re-check the claim in the field in the near future," Soewarno told The Jakarta Post by telephone yesterday.
ACFOA said in a press statement made available to the Post yesterday that military troops with the aid of security forces of PT Freeport, a copper and gold mining company operating in Tembagapura, had killed or "disappeared" 22 civilians and 15 members of the pro-independence West Papuan liberation movement (OPM) between June 1994 and February this year.
"Others were arbitrarily arrested, beaten, had their houses burned and gardens destroyed, and were forced to flee into the jungle," the statement said.
ACFOA said that the actions might been sparked by a series of protests by local tribal groups over the expansion of Freeport's operation in the rugged Grasberg mountains in Tembagapura.
The group said it had obtained the information from eyewitnesses to the events.
Reuter quoted an Australian government official in Canberra yesterday as saying that the Australian government would be very concerned if ACFOA's claims proved to be true.
"The report has been referred to the Australian embassy in Jakarta to follow up urgently," the official quoted Evans as saying in a letter to ACFOA.
John Milne, a spokesman for the Australian Embassy, confirmed yesterday that Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans had asked the embassy to investigate ACFOA's claim, adding that Ambassador Allan Taylor would make a visit to the province next month.
Freeport's Public Relations Manager Paul Murphy denied the ACFOA allegations, saying the company's presence in the province had benefited indigenous people.
"Those who are responsible for security in the company are military troops and PT Freeport's security guards are not armed nor given military training," he said.
Murphy said that his company had enjoyed increasingly good relations with all the indigenous people in the province.
"The company has recruited many local people to be employed at the company, made a significant contribution to promoting education among the people, carried out a social development program for the province and many others things," he said. (rms)